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 Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:21 am
 What was strange was simply how the figure let Junko hit them, several flurries at once, and then one that sent them staggering backwards, holding its side. What was even stranger was how the character, despite taking the beating, still moved around some of Junko's attacks, in a strange pattern of dance, dodge, hit.
They never even attacked once, and simply let the whole ordeal play out until something in the figure's coat started buzzing. It swing its blade down once - cutting off the ghoul's last attack - and then once again into the air, releasing a shockwave that sent everything flying backwards: fog, sand, and of course, its opponent.
Post shockwave the figure was gone. All that remained was a strange object, so foreign and yet familiar, glittering even in the fog. HP: 0 Loot:
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:45 am
Elaphe couldn't see her crying, but oh, could he ever hear it, however muffled, tall ears twitching and straining as if in some struggle to identity the sound he already knew. Something was wrong out there; he just had this dread feeling and he knew, but by the time his brain processed some form of response, he stopped all over again, picking up a dull growl and a flurry of activity in the fog. Was that Junko attacking? Had she gotten the upper hand? Was she still in one piece, or did the crying mean she'd lost an arm already?!
He spluttered out a sharp hiss as the shockwave suddenly hit, scrubbing some odd particulate from his eye and hastily blinking it away to see... a suddenly clear space in front of them, with Junko there in the thick of it, and no sign of the hooded figure short of something small it had left behind. Whatever.
She looked more intact that he'd been expecting, even if she'd been toppled. All her limbs were there and she hadn't even gotten the pajamas too wrecked, so why'd she look all miserable and flustered and teary-eyed?
"..." Elaphe also belatedly realized that he was still cowering behind Tomoko at that point, clearing his throat ever-so-inconspiculously and sliding out from around her to... uh. To uh. Uuuh. "Uh..." he even mumbled it out loud as he slid a step forward, and then another, with an awkward frown. "Hey, you... a-alright, and everything, ghoul?"
He'd managed to scoot within a couple feet of her, even, and a really chivalrous fellow would've at least offered her a hand up, but he... seemed a bit hesitant to touch her.
(But it so wasn't because he feared Seiji beating the tar out of him for it. No, really!)
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 1:14 am
Junko didn't think to consider how...suspicious it was that the figure was just letting her keep attacking it. All she cared was that it needed to die until she was suddenly thrown backward through the air. She landed on the ground with a thud and an 'OOF!', whining and rubbing her lower back. Owwww. She saw the glittering object and reached for it, frowning down at the pendant. She'd seen this pendant before, a few times! She put it on, pausing when she felt her fingers brush the ends of her hair near her shoulders. She shouldn't be feeling hair there. Oh...right. Her...her hair...
The ghoul whimpered and hugged her knees to her chest, hiding her face against them and trying so hard not to draw more attention to herself with her sobbing. She gasped and jumped when she heard a voice asking if she was alright, turning to look up at the boil with the still-moving-why-was-it-still-moving hair as he asked her if she was alright. Alright?! ALRIGHT?! DID SHE LOOK ALRIGHT?! She looked outright pissed off by his question, that he had the audacity to suggest she was alright.
Instead, Junko cried and threw her arms around the small boil, tugging him down to her level and sobbing into his shoulder. "I-IT CU-C-CUT M-M-MUH-MY HAIR!" She sobbed, curling up against the boil as if making herself as tiny as possible would just make all this disappear.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 1:33 am
... Suddenly, Elaphe regretted everything. He regretted everything ever in the history of existing.
Maybe, he could have handled a ginger pat on the shoulder, or even a fretted few mumbled words of "encouragement" to curb her tears, but the absolute last thing he'd been expecting was for her to lunge out and, before he could even make sense of her spluttering stutters, pull him over BY FORCE in a weepy, crushing hug. Now, granted, being an already top-heavy, turtle-backed, four-foot-nothing twig of a boy didn't make him hard to pull over, but he still let out a strangled SQUAWK of surprise, followed by an oof of his own when he plopped right beside her lap like a stupefied teddy bear.
One, two, three seconds passed before he even dared to suck in his breath. His eyes looked ready to bug out of his head, arms frozen away from him, a still frame of some flailing windmill, not sure if he should stay there, bolt, or... oh, Jack. Oh Jack. Option three was the worst.
That meant comfort.
"U-um..." And again he stammered, drawing a mortified blank. She was crying on him against his shoulder and he clearly had NO idea how to handle it. With an awkwardness so tangible it hurt, and a dread grimace to match, finally, FINALLY, he moved one hand to nervously give one shoulder a pat. You know, the kind of pat one gives something they expect to melt their hand off. "Hey... come on, i-it's just hair, geez..." And that? That probably sounded insensitive as hell. He seemed to realize it a split second later, too, choking on a big guilty knot in his throat and frowning even more, with an addendum. "It'll just grow back when we're... uh... home, again. So stop crying a-about it-- it's... better than losing your whole head, right?"
Oh, how this pained him-- and yet he still just sat there and took it with that long suffering bug eyed look of uncertainty.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:01 am
Unfortunately for Elaphe Junko didn't realize his discomfort, or if she did she just didn't care right now. She needed something to hug and he was the closest one right now. If Tomoko had approached her first, or if Seiji had, or even if Bul had they would be receiving this very same treatment. Elaphe just got the short end of the stick. Get it? Short end? Because...because he's short..
...
Shut up.
Just..hair? Just. Hair? JUST HAIR?! REALLY?! Junko's hug tightened and she seemed to cry harder. "But it-it's not just hair!" She sobbed, shaking her head when he said at least she still at that. No! She'd rather have no head than no hair! This was Halloween! Alwine didn't have a head, so clearly Junko didn't need one! It wasn't fair! Why did it have to chop off her hair?! It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair!
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:24 am
Wait, no, things weren't supposed to be happening this way! He'd sucked it up and tried to be comforting with her, damn it! She should have been feeling better! And yet, seemingly without explanation, he'd managed to make it that much worse, because now she was crying even harder and her grip felt like a steel trap, crushing the last fragments of his dignity into itty bitty pieces. And also his ribs.
The sound that he produced seemed vaguely reminiscent of a squeaky toy when compressed, his next breath coming out in a wheeze before he sucked in, swallowed hard, and floundered to think of something, anything to do next. What was he supposed to tell her? That yes, it was just hair?! Because he was pretty sure of that one...
"S-so what, you'd rather die than have a haircut?!" Finally, he managed to splutter something out, using his own 'hair' of all things to lightly push her back, if only so he could TRY to muster up some kind of... eye contact, because he was hoping and praying a stare down would get the message across. "You're just... fine, alright?! You're not ugly or anything..."
Oh Candlejack, what was even coming out of his mouth? He was babbling at that point, groping for some way of calming her down. It wasn't even a lie or anything. He just wished she'd shut up and stop fretting about such a stupid thing.
"And look, you... managed to fight whatever that thing was and you're alright now, so be proud of all that. You won, and if you're strong enough to win, you're strong enough to deal with a little trim until we get back to school, so... Candlejack, breathe a-and calm down already!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:08 am
Did he really just ask that? Was it not obvious she would have preferred death over her hair being cut?! At least she'd come back, right? R-right? She'd rather die than suffer this humiliation! She she was pushed back by Elaphe's hair she got a good look at it; there was a hand, and it was definitely moving. But why? Why did Elaphe's hair get to keep moving?! Sure, it was a nice reprieve from the usual abuse but now Junko's world was nothing but pain and despair and all she wanted was for her hair to go back to the way it was. Normal for a futakuchi-onna. Her bottom lip trembled and she broke down into more pitiful sobs when he told her she was alright and she wasn't ugly. Normally she wouldn't care about comments like this...but...but her hair...
Her hands covered her face and she cried into them, trying desperately to quiet down so not everyone would have to hear her being so absolutely pathetic. "Bu-but I'm not! My haaaaair! I w-wor-wo-worked so ha-hard and it jus-ust got long'n'I ta-ake good care of it and he cut it! I'm ugly now!" A futakuchi-onna with short hair?! Only babies had short hair! And Junko was definitely not a baby! What Elaphe didn't understand, apparently, was this really wasn't something stupid for Junko. She spent hours a day just tending to her hair. Yes, it gave her trouble and yes it made her life miserable, but Junko was just compelled to take care of and take pride in her hair. It was her pride and joy. She loved her hair despite all its faults. The hair itself was beautiful to her, and her dream was to grow it so long it touched the floor and just curtained. And now? That dream was ruined. If She wasn't also upset about it She would be damning Junko and making her life miserable, but as it was Junko was making enough noise for both of them and She knew the ghoul had at least tried her hardest to avoid this kind of thing. Even She knew what Junko went through to take care of her hair.
Frankly Junko didn't even give a damn that she'd fought off the mysterious hooded figure! She didn't even know where that strength had come from other than pure rage! She'd fought it off, but at what cost!? Junko wasn't strong. Elaphe had it all wrong.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:22 am
Sadly, Elaphe didn't get it, and that was probably half the problem. To him, hair was really just hair; it would always grow back and, unlike limbs, didn't hurt to slice off, which always got bonus points. He couldn't understand for the life of him why she was so ridiculously shaken about it, especially given how it'd probably just grow back to whatever "normal" was once they limped back home again and... really? She didn't even look bad! Hell, maybe if that hooded guy had left her bald he'd understand a bit more but... no, probably best not to bring up something like that.
The boy was getting increasingly desperate by the second now. Seeing her weeping into her own hands just left his gut sinking, and his thoughts racing, and oh Jack he wanted it to stop WHAT COULD HE DO WHAT COULD HE DO?
"O-oh for the love of-- would you SHUT UP already?! You're NOT ugly!" He'd retracted his 'third' hand from her to sit on his own shoulder now, because it was bristling and digging its claws into his shirt and the look on his FACE, oh, it was some twisted mix of pained and confused and just hilariously desperate. "You're a jackdamn pretty girl, okay?! A PRETTY GIRL. S-SO STOP WORRYING ABOUT YOUR STUPID HAIRSTYLE ALREADY, PLEASE!..."
... Only then did he belatedly realize he'd just shrieked that she was a pretty girl near at the top of his lungs, and his face glazed over in a look akin to raw horror, falling dead silent and frowning the most miserable frown.
He even felt compelled to give her shoulder another awkward sympathy pat, and he was the one to wince at it. Oh, he was going to suffer for this. Somehow, he just knew.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:20 am
Tomoko was immediately drawn to Junko in her distress, ears drooping and the kitsune putting her head against the girl's shoulder, rubbing against it. Clearly her mannerisms were very ingrained to be on four legs where head-rubbing was one of the few things she could do.
"Junnkkoo-chaaaannn... ;____; You can borrow my hair....." she said, not sure how much it would help to make the girl feel better, but hey! At least Junko had surrogate hair to mess with for the time-being, right? Although the screaming mouth on the back of Junko's head might not have found that as effective....
Hrmmm....
Well, Tomoko wasn't worried about that stupid head-mouth-thing. It was stupid! She wanted Junko to feel better.. ;;;
Which mean Elaphe had a pile-up of woeful females starting on him. Oh dear.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:18 pm
One moment his ghoulfriend was safe, walking beside him back to where he'd left Elaphe and Tomoko, the next something and grabbed her and torn her away to jack knew where. And the fog, THE FOG. It was so damn thick he couldn't see ANYTHING. ********. "Junko!" Wheeling about on his heels he searched around his immediate area vain as it might have been. Desperate to get her back again. He'd just found her, and she was gone, again. No. "JUNKO!"
And oh Jack, the sounds. He could hear her cries, the sounds of fighting and then sobbing. Jack damned son of a b***h, if she was hurt he was going to kill someone. "Junko, where are you?!"
It took a frustratingly long time to find her and the others, and the ghost boil was left wondering at the back of his mind if perhaps the fog was playing tricks of him. They'd been so close only a moment ago, how had he gotten so terribly separated from him. By the time he got close enough to see their shadowy forms through the fog his ghoul and the runty kid were arguing. He didn't know what the topic was, but considering he was already seething from having been separated and J having been hurt, Elaphe was itching for worst then pillow to the head if he kept yelling at her.
"You're a jackdamn pretty girl, okay?! A PRETTY GIRL. S-SO STOP WORRYING ABOUT YOUR STUPID HAIRSTYLE ALREADY, PLEASE!..."
His quickened pace came to an abrupt halt right as he came to Junko's side, a hand coming down to rest on her shoulder. Already to sweep her into his arms to make sure she was ok, but that bi colored gaze landed instead on the nguruvilu, narrowing dangerously as brows descended. "What's going on?" He gave that ghoul's shoulder a small squeeze, glancing down at the top of her head. "Are you ok?"
Then he noticed it, her hair. Her lovely, now woefully short hair. "Oh J.." Being at least partially schooled in Futakuchi-onna heritage, the ghost knew just how big a deal this actually was. "What happened?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:06 pm
How could he tell her to shut up?! And that she wasn't ugly? Did he not see her right now!? She was hideous! Her hair was so short! She was a shameful futakuchi-onna! If her mother heard about this? Oh, Jack! She'd be so punished! She was taken aback bu the yelling about being pretty, sniffling and hiccupping and whimpering and just being overall pathetic. She knew she looked horrible, and she was being a crybaby but...but...! She had good reasons for this, okay?! Elaphe just didn't understand. It wasn't just a stupid hairstyle to her! It was a part of her! It was the one thing about her race she took pride in and now it was gone.
She looked up at Tomoko as the little kitsune ghoul offered to let Junko borrow her hair, tilting her head against the ghoul's and closing her eyes as she bit down hard on her lip. This was so humiliating. "Th-thank, Tomo-chan." She said in a shaky voice, glad that at least Seiji wasn't seeing her like this.
Oh, Jack...SEIJI! Junko froze when she felt his hand on her shoulder, her eyes wide and her jaw dropped. No...no! Nonono! He couldn't see her like this! He couldn't! No! She didn't want him seeing her looking so...so...grotesque! That was the only word for it! Junko was grotesque! An abomination to her race! She could never show her face in public ever again, that was it. She'd find a cave far away and just rot there. But despite all that, despite the utter shame and pure heartbreak she was feeling, and the desire to just not be around anyone at all...Junko couldn't stop herself from throwing her arms around Seiji and crying into his chest as she had with Elaphe, clinging so tightly her nails dug into his skin. "Wuh-we-we were fighting an'e cut my hair! IlookhideousandlikeaBABYan...and my arm hurts and...!" She cried again, not even caring about why her arm hurt. In truth, it was cut..and bleeding down her arm.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:39 pm
While it may not have seemed it, Elaphe really was trying hard to calm her down, so hard that it hurt, grimacing like someone who'd just taken a staple gun to the foot. Shrieking comfort at her forcibly hadn't worked, which meant that he was out of options... and thus, in miserable defeat, the boy could only hang there, hoping she'd just cry herself out or seek some weird comfort in another thing that was female so he could--
"What's going on?"
It was probably the closest he'd ever come to wetting himself in his "adult" life, face glazing over once again in a look of abject horror as he jerked his head up, meeting one very dangerous leer. Fear and instinct seized hold as he instantly recoiled from Junko's side, very nearly tripping over Tomoko in the process as he whipped back so fast it startled even the turtle on his knapsack, who gargled and flapped its fins in confusion.
"Look, it... i-it was NOTHING, okay?!" Elaphe's face was a strange mix of drained pallor and red hot flush right then, the latter from some mixture of embarrassment and defensive anger. Even the fur on his flattened ears had prickled visibly. "Some stupid guy showed up and... agh, forget it. W-Whatever! I'm going ahead!"
At that point, either out of rage or veiled terror, he turned, turtle STILL flapping on his bag, and he started off, deeper into the fog.
It was just his luck, really, getting that kind of "gratitude" for sitting there and not biting Junko when she decided to use him for a convenient teddy bear. He'd tried, damn it! But that guy-- oh, he could just sense it. That guy thought he'd done something bad to her! Figured.
((END NOTE: Exit time to abandoned city!))
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:52 pm
Awrrrrrr. Tomoko's ears remained in their drooped position as the distress was spread around from the hair-cutting-incident. However, Tomoko puffed her little chest up. "w-well if I could have, I could try to illusion you some new hair until it grows back...." she offered further, huddling awkwardly by Elaphe while Junko magnetized over to Seiji. Unfortunately the obstacle keeping her from using her natural ability was the significant lack of 'FEAR' in the air.
It was making her feel like she was suffocating. Especially when she had her ball-of-stars stashed away in her bag and not in her hands. All she really had was the First Aid Kit. Well. The empty one, anyways. She just hugged it to her chest and frowned, shuffling awkwardly from one foot to the other. After a moment, she looked into the fog and seemed to shrink up a bit, brows furrowing together.
"We....should move to somewhere safer.. that's two of those strange people we've already seen...." she suggested. "We're in a safe-enough group I think..but....." she trailed off, not sure where else to go with the suggestion. She didn't really want to see someone else get attacked while they were sorting out the aftermath of the previous incident.
Because frankly if another scythe-man showed up, Junko might have popped a vein out of revenge.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:29 pm
Between Junko burying her face into his chest and starting up a hysterical explanation and Elaphe's angry defense the jikininki was no closer to understanding the situation. Or at least not much closer. He had gathered that someone had attacked Junko, and her hair had paired the ultimate price. Really though, that was all he needed to know. The knowledge was enough to infuriate the ghost, venomous demeanor sinking further into a seething, boiling thing. Bare arms tightening protectively around the futakuchi-onna as she wept.
He didn't even bother looking up as the nguruvilu stomped off to jack knew where. All his concern focused on Junko. "Shhh, it's alright. You don't look hideous." Cool lips pressed against the top of her head, kissing gently. Only to jerk back suddenly as something wet touched his arm. Blinking, he looked down, shifting her grip on the ghoul so he could see the inside of that arm, already cold blood running icy as he saw the blood. and my arm hurts she'd said. "Junko, you're bleeding." How badly was she injured? It was so dim he couldn't jacking see.
Tension singing through his shoulders, he bent and hooked an arm beneath the ghoul's knees, lifting her up into his arms. Dark eyes turning to Momo as she suggested they go somewhere safer. He couldn't agree more, and it earned the kitsune a weak little smile. "Good idea. Let's go find that bonfire. Stick close, ok. I don't want you getting hurt too." Like he didn't have enough to worry about.
With that he turned to lead the way through the fog, hopefully back towards the beach.
((BACK TO BEACH!))
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:50 pm
Seiji was wrong, Junko did look hideous. She was gross and ugly and disgusting and any mirror pointed in her direction would shatter into a million pieces. See? SEE?! He couldn't even kiss her she was so ugly! Just the mere touch of his lips against her disgusting short hair was enough to--bleeding? Junko hiccuped and lifted her arm to look at it, spotting the growing red stain around the slash in her pajama sleeve. Oh...so she was. She didn't even notice, or really care...her hair was the important thing here. Junko pursed her lips and rubbed at it with one hand to make sure it really was blood, frowning down at the hand after. Yup. She was definitely bleeding, though not terribly just..enough that she noticed it now. "It's okay." She muttered, not putting up any kind of fuss as she was lifted. Junko instead closed her eyes and tilted her head against his shoulder to hide her face. She couldn't even hide behind her hair! There wasn't enough of it! Ugh!
A bonfire sounded nice though. Tomoko had the right idea. Junko kept her hand over her arm for now while she was being carried back to the beach, sniffling and coughing as she tried not to cry again.
((LAND HOOOOOOO))
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